Chapter 7: Last rites (2)

I wake up trembling. Cold seems to have permeated me to the bone and my teeth chatter uncontrollably as I stretch, trying to set the blood in my veins into motion again.

“Thud. Thud.”

I have never been more aware of the rhythm in which my heart beats.

“Thud.”

Slanting rays of light dot the stone floor on which I have slept. It couldn’t have been more than a couple hours and it has been hardly resting at all, but I have been so exhausted I was not able to hold my eyes open. I look around, still dazed as I scramble upright.

“Ready for business?” The voice sends chills down my spine. It has an odd, metallic sound to it, a deep note and a shrill overlapping tone. Blue orbs fix me impassible in an expressionless face. It is freezing in here, fresh snow piling outside the ziggurat, but this presence would feel the same under a glorious summer sun.

I wonder how I was able to sleep even the little I did, knowing him so close…My back aches and so does my head. The space around is mostly empty, a stone hall filled with strange looking devices. A magical force field encircles a corner of the room and the skeletal, floating form of an undead being. A lich. Out of all Scourge, there is nothing more cunning, more ruthless than a lich – hard to imagine a being of such power trapped.

My stomach churns at the sight. I keep telling myself it has nothing to do with the ghoul intently studying me from across the hall. His master does not pay more attention to it than to a harmless pet. The stench of rot wafts heavily in the air.

Light, what am I doing here? As I try to stand, nausea suddenly reminds me I haven’t eaten anything for more than a day but had been doing a lot of other things meanwhile. Like recovering a phylactery from the bottom of a fucking freezing lake and fending off abominations around the ziggurat for bloody long hours. I bite my tongue at the language, but it is all in my head. No need for penance here. Not anymore.

My stomach growls loudly and the man standing at ease laughs. It sounds even worse than his voice. Try as I might, I cannot repress a shudder.

I’m not going to bite you” he says calmly, “so stop looking at me like that. We have work to do still, and you agreed to help.”

The reminder is welcome. I was just asking my self again why.

“Do you have anything to eat? ”he continues levelly. “You certainly seem to need it.”

I wrinkle my nose at the question. I have bought some food in the tuskarr village. Obviously, fish.

“I do”, I nod curtly. It’s hard to reconcile my mixed feelings into one coherent attitude. Oh yes, I have found Leryssa’s brother, Thassarian…

I should be trying to stab him through the heart right now. I hate all he embodies – a tool of the Scourge, a soul that willingly gave himself to the evil of the Lich King. He’d make short work of me though. A death knight is the most formidable opponent one could conceive.

I have heard about these redeemed death kinghts joining the fight against the Scourge. Yet, how real is their motivation? Can they be trusted? And how far?

When in doubt, kill them all¸ the High Inquisitor Isilien used to say. Better to perish an innocent than to let the evil of the Scourge spread.

Thassarian’s ice blue eyes in a face prematurely aged study me with a strange interest, as if I were an unknown species of insect. Something he may crush under his plated boot, without intention – and without remorse.

Hatred for what he is burns in my veins. Too many lies…I hear Taelan say. Yes, it’s just in my mind. All of a sudden I feel like chuckling. Maybe I am finally going insane.

Thassarian seems to think we two can bring down the necropolis looming above the ziggurat we’re hiding in. Vaguely, I remember agreeing to help. I must have been dead tired last night.

With numb fingers, I rummage in my bag for the package of food. It’s hard to say what is more permeating: the odor of fish or the smell of undeath. A rasping sound starts me – and it takes a moment until I realize it is my own laughter.
Well, some more dried salmon is definitely not the thing that might kill me today.